NEW YORK (AP) – Friends and colleagues gathered on Broadway on Thursday to celebrate the life of Jerry Orbach, the song-and-dance man turned television star who died of prostate cancer last year.

“Because he made his life here, a lot of lucky us got to know him and love him,” said master of ceremonies Sam Waterston, Orbach’s co-star on “Law & Order.”

Waterston said that Orbach, who died Dec. 28 at age 69, was “Mr. Broadway, the Babe Ruth of the boards, and his record will be very hard to beat.”

“He gave more performances as a leading actor in Broadway musicals than any other actor in the whole of history,” Waterston said.

Orbach, the star of stage musicals from “The Fantasticks” to “Chicago,” achieved his widest fame as wisecracking Detective Lennie Briscoe on “Law & Order.”

For New Yorkers, the Briscoe character was “wonderfully familiar,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

“Irascible is a good word, I think, that comes to mind,” Bloomberg said. “Intelligent. With enough one-liners to fill a Centre Street holding cell. Briscoe exuded the life of the city in all its moxie.”

The tribute at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, where Orbach starred in “Chicago” in the 1970s, featured clips from “Law & Order” and movies in which Orbach appeared, including “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” and “Prince of the City.” Al Pacino and Richard Dreyfuss were among those who attended.

Actress Angela Lansbury recalled luring Orbach to appear on her TV show, “Murder She Wrote,” before he got his own long-running crime drama.

“To have Jerry on the set with me, it was like a breath of Broadway,” she said. “Jerry was such a warm and accessible person, so kind and generous-hearted. I’m so very proud to have known Jerry and to have been part of his circle.”

Orbach’s widow, Elaine Orbach, said he used to leave her a poem every morning before he left for work.

Actress Jane Alexander, a friend of the couple’s and Orbach’s co-star in “6 Rms Riv Vu,” read a selection of them, including:

“A chilly Thursday morning. The wind could freeze your liver.

“And so, where are we filming? 113th and the River.”